


turn back time

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Flirting, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pining, confessing during battle, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-10
Updated: 2016-11-10
Packaged: 2018-08-30 05:21:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8520082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: "In hindsight, it probably hadn’t been one of Keith’s smartest moves.The red pilot ‘Relies more on instincts than skills alone’. Yep. He’d gone and ticked that box off pretty quickly."





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [seyama](https://archiveofourown.org/users/seyama/gifts).



> this started off so fluffy and then BAM angst and hurt just the way I like it

“Hey Keith, I bet you can’t lift this weight and hold it for 10 seconds.”

“Oh yeah? You’re on, Lance.”

The day had started off like any other. They were all in the gym - or well, everyone except Pidge. Shiro and Allura were off to the side combat training, while Hunk was busy with his daily yoga routine.

Keith had decided to stick with weights for the day, and so of course, Lance had made the decision to come over and annoy him at least once a minute by giving him stupid tasks that Keith absolutely wasn’t enticed by. Nope. No way.

They had all been cooped up in this flying castle ship for months now since they had started this journey, and they could sometimes go _weeks_ without making descent on a neighboring planet. So working out in the gym was one of the only ways to stay in shape while they were stuck in here.

Over time – and compared to how they initially acted towards each other – Keith had started to get along much better with Lance. It was almost unreal, actually; considering how different they were in terms of personality they seemed to compliment each other quite well. Red and Blue, fire and water; Keith often thinks they should be mortal enemies, but no, Lance is pretty much his best friend now, if he’s being honest.

And so what if he also happens to be sort of, kind of in love with him.

He’s totally handling it.

Except lately they’ve started doing this thing that involves the aforementioned betting against each other about trivial things, and also, they’ve started acting like an old married couple, apparently (Pidge’s words, not his).

(Lance had been scolding him one day about needing to wash his hair more after Lance had come over to ruffle it after a successful battle. Keith had rolled his eyes, muttering ‘you’re not my mother’ to which Pidge had shot him a knowing smirk. Keith was about to ask what, but Pidge beat him to it.

“You guys are so cute,” she’d cooed, “Pretty soon you’ll be arguing about whose turn it is to get up and feed the baby,” she snickered.

“ _What_?” Keith had squeaked.

“Puh- _lease_ ,” Lance had scoffed, resting an arm on Keith’s shoulder, “We all know how much I need my beauty sleep – at least _one_ of us in this relationship has to look fabulous,” he winked at Keith.

Keith didn’t even get a word in, watching Lance and Pidge continue their debate on who was the better looking of the two as they walked out of the control room, leaving the startled red Paladin behind.

“ _What_?” Keith said again to an empty room.)

So ever since then Lance had taken it upon himself to start calling Keith pet names whenever they hung out together, on top of acting all domestic with him.

(“Keith, sweetheart, your shirt is on backwards.”)

(“Darling, remind me to buy more of my favourite face-masks when we stop at the next planet, okay? You remember the ones.”)

(“Honey, can you come here a moment and taste this new recipe I’m trying out?”)

It was slowly driving Keith insane. And he would never, _ever_ in a million years admit how much he likes the endearments. That information will go with him to his _grave_.

“Okay, I’ll time you; ready, set, GO!”

Keith took a deep breath before lifting the weights up, holding them in their place above his head. He counts to ten in his head, and he thinks he’s about to drop them, but then he reaches his goal – or well, _Lance’s_ stupid goal. He drops them unceremoniously, panting hard and then he looks over to Lance for confirmation.

“Sorry sweet-cheeks,” Lance tisk’s, “You only got to 8.4.”

“What?” Keith puffs out, “No way, I counted it in my head.”

“Hmm,” Lance gives him a look before showing him the timer.

“Lance,” Keith sighs, “It’s in _tick’s_ , not _seconds_. We _all_ know tick’s are longer.”

“Whatever, mullet, you lost the bet. So now, I get to reap the rewards,” he grins.

“No way, you cheated.”

“Me? Cheated? My god, the _audacity_ -”

Suddenly the Voltron alarm sounded throughout the room, and Keith saw Allura and Shiro had almost reached the doors of the room already, running to go and get into their uniforms.

“You got lucky this time, mullet,” Lance puffs out as they both started running for the exit. “Next time.”

Keith shot him a smirk before they parted ways to their rooms. He changed quickly enough, hating putting on his uniform when he was already sweaty and gross. But they had a universe to defend, after all. He ran back out, making it to the control room in record time. At least he beat Lance in this bet.

“Paladins,” Allura calls their attention from the main controls. “Level 3 mission, 57 enemy ships and counting, you _will_ need to form Voltron today, I can tell you that.”

They all nodded once before making their way down to their lions, gearing them to life and flying out into the depths of space once again. Keith noticed Lance hadn’t made it out yet, but he pushed those thoughts down and concentrated on blowing up as many ships as possible.

It was exhausting, every time he destroys one it feels like two more appear in its place. It’s a few minutes later and he sees the blue lion appear in his sights then, and Lance’s voice calls over the comms.

“Hey guys, what’d I miss?”

“Lance,” Shiro’s stern voice comes through, then, “We need to form Voltron, we aren’t getting anywhere by battling them like this.”

They all agree, but that task proves to be easier said than done. Every time they try and get close to one another to form Voltron, an enemy ship will appear and knock them clean out of their path. It’s frustrating, and Keith wonders if this was their plan from the beginning.

“Allura,” he pages through, “It’s impossible to come together, we need another strategy.”

“Let me do a quick scan and see what exactly is happening,” she tells them.

Keith goes to destroy another ship, and just like before, two more show up, seemingly out of nowhere. It doesn’t make any sense.

“Lance, you seeing this?”

“Yep.”

“You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“You know it.”

Red and Blue come together, and they start attacking the ships in a tag-team combo. He’ll get Red to start heating them up at an alarming rate with a fire blast, and then Lance will appear and shoot them with a good old ice-beam. It renders the ship useless, and they don’t see two more ships appear in its place. Keith thinks they might be on to something.

“Paladins,” Allura calls their attention again, her voice full of concern, “Every time we destroy one ship, a back-up drive is activated and two holographic ships appear in its place. There is no way to tell which ones are real and which ones aren’t once they materialize, so watch your backs, they could distract you in front only to attack from behind!”

“Got it, princess,” Shiro says, “Everyone, we need to stop them in their tracks but _not_ destroy them. Keith, Lance, you two keep up with your strategy, the rest of us will follow behind.”

“Right.”

“No worries.”

And there it is again, another example of how well he and Lance work as a team. It’s quite exhilarating, the feeling he gets when Lance cheers in victory, the complete and utter fondness he can feel blooming in his gut as he watches Lance kick some Galran ass. He’s total smitten, is what he is.

“Keith, one coming in on your left!”

“I’m on it!”

He charges head first, fiery hot blasts emitting from Red as he melts down the blasters all along the top of the enemy ship. Lance flies over it right on his tail, freezing them in place and coming to position again right next to Red. Keith can practically _feel_ Lance’s grin from here.

“Babe, that was amazing!” Lance crows out, his voice in complete awe.

Keith freezes, his body flushing from head to toe. Lance has never called him that before, that’s the _first time_ and Keith wonders if he’s suddenly having a heart attack. He takes a deep breath, willing himself to calm down and concentrate on the task at hand. He sees a ship appear in his peripheral vision, so he throws a warning to Lance, like he’d done for Keith before.

Lance moves in first, seemingly in control, and Keith becomes momentarily distracted by a ship in his right that he almost didn’t notice the other ship off in the distance appear behind Blue, and then without thinking, without so much as a single plan of action, Keith rears Red over to where Lance is, panic seeping through his entire body.

“Lance, behind you!” he yells out, crashing right into Blue and knocking Lance out of the path of a blast that was coming his way.

In hindsight, it probably hadn’t been one of Keith’s smartest moves.

The red pilot ‘Relies more on instincts than skills alone’. Yep. He’d gone and ticked that box off pretty quickly.

The pain is unlike anything else he’s ever felt. He’s not sure what’s happening; Red seems to still be in place, but he’s losing consciousness, like a million bullets have shot right through him and all the air from his lungs disperses. He tries to stay focused, to make sure Lance is okay. He has to know that he’s okay.

He’s not sure how much times passes, but suddenly he can hear voices call out in panic, “Ke- I –Ket – ans – me – eith – _Keith_?” Lance’s static voice tries to break through whatever malfunction Red is experiencing from the blast.

“Lance,” he gets out, barely a whisper.

“Oh,” Lance chokes, “Fuck, _thank god_. Keith, baby, hold on, we’re going to get you back to the castle - it’s going to be okay, just _hold on for me_.”

Keith doesn’t know if he’s going to make it. He’s always wondered what dying would feel like, what his last thought would be about. There’s a pain in his head like it’s been sliced open, his vision is growing cloudier by the second, and he thinks, _‘this is it, this is it.’_

“Lan-” he's cut off when his stomach cough's up blood, but he pushes through - he has to tell him, he _needs_ to tell him. This could be the last moment he ever has with Lance. “Lance I… need to tell… you-”

“Keith - no, _stop that_ ,” he thinks Lance might be crying, which is stupid. Why would Lance cry over him? _Keith_ is the one who’s in love here.

“No… listen,” Keith falls to the floor of his lion, his body is freezing up; he thinks he won’t even be able to move his lips soon. “You need… to know…” he gets out, almost out of breath, “That I… love you,” he feels his heart seize up, his throat close over.

“No,” Lance laughs, but it's desperate--broken. “You can’t – you can’t _say_ that to me and then just die! That's not _fair_ , so just hold on, dammit, _stay alive_ until I get to you, okay?”

Keith feels his eyes slip shut. If these are his last moments, he's glad to spend them with Lance. "I'm... sorry."

"Don't be sorry - just _stay with me!_ " Lance yells, and he sounds as bad as Keith feels. 

Keith thinks he hears Shiro call out to Lance, and several curse words ring out around him over the comms. He’s not sure if Lance can still hear him, but he wants to keep talking, if only to hear Lance’s voice one more time before he passes out completely.

“Lance…” he says it like it’s a recording, unable to think of anything else, his mind becoming numb.

“ _Keith_ ,” Lance sobs, this heartbreaking sound that Keith wished he never heard. “Please hold on, _please_ , I’m begging you, please, I lo-”

And then everything goes dark.

 

-

 

_He remembers a whisper, a promise; he thinks of Lance one more time before he let the darkness take him._

_The pain was agonizing, but hearing Lance’s cries for help were even worse._

_If this is how he goes, he’s glad he got to tell him at least once._

-

 

It’s quiet when he wakes up.

His eyelids feel like they weigh a ton, his heartbeat continues to ring loudly in his ears and when his eyes come into focus he’s met with his own reflection.

Healing pods. Right.

He tries to look past the glass of the pod and he can’t see anyone else in sight. He wonders how long he’s been out. He tests his limbs to see if they can move; they can, so he waits for his body to catch up with his sudden consciousness, and then he summons up all the remaining strength in him to allow the pod to open up. He clutches the side of the opening, steadying himself upright, and he takes a few shuddering breaths before taking the first step.

He leaves the room and tries listening out for anyone in the castle. He decides to go to the dining room, figures it’s his best bet.

It takes a lot longer than he had expected, his legs feeling like they’re learning to walk again for the first time. He reaches the opening, and he looks around for his team. It’s only Shiro and Hunk in there, and he tries to push down his disappointment that Lance isn’t here.

Shiro spots him first. “Keith, oh god, stay right there, hold on,” and then Keith is being man-handled over to the couch, and he hates how much he appreciates the help.

“Keith, man, how do you feel?” Hunk asks him, his usually happy face full of worry.

“I…” Keith swallows, wishing he had some water. “Okay, not great though.”

“You took quite the hit, we were all pretty worried,” Hunk rubs his shoulder gently, and then Shiro appears then with a glass of some sort of liquid. Keith drinks it without question, savouring the feeling as it runs down his throat.

“We’re glad you’re okay, Keith,” Shiro frowns, “You’ve been out for over a week.”

Keith feels his eyes widen, “More than a week? How… what happened? After I passed out, I mean,” it hurt to talk this much.

“We didn’t stick around to finish it off, it was too risky. So we escaped in a wormhole and made descent on a nearby planet,” Hunk says, his voice suddenly becoming quiet, “It wasn’t a pretty sight when we found you,” he grimaces, looking away.

“Lance,” Keith needs to know, “Where is he? Is he okay? Please tell me he’s okay-”

“Keith,” Shiro interrupts gently, “He’s fine, don’t worry. I made him rest; he hadn’t sleep at all for the past two days.”

“What?” Keith breathes, already getting up to go and find him, “I-I, have to go, see him-” he pants when his knees buckle under him.

“Whoa, whoa,” Hunk steady’s him, “I don’t think that’s the best idea.”

“Keith, you need to rest too,” Shiro adds.

Keith is already shaking his head sternly. “No, no, I need to see him, I need to let him know I’m okay, and I’m going with or without your help.”

Hunk and Shiro share a look before Shiro lets out a deep sigh. “Fine, we’ll help you to his room, then.”

It’s a bit of a trek to get there, but soon they’re in front of Lance’s door, and Keith tells them both that he’s got it from here. He taps the door open, walking inside gingerly and making his way over to where Lance is sleeping on his bed. He looks awful; bags under his eyes, mouth pulled tight, and Keith wants to cry because he could have lost this - lost this boy he loves more than anything.

He reaches out to brush some hair away from Lance’s eye, and he can’t help but notice that it’s gotten longer. Lance stirs, his eyes blinking open and Keith watches as his body goes rigid, like he’s seeing a ghost.

“Keith?” he breathes, disbelieving.

“Hey,” Keith feels a sad smile appearing on his face, and wetness pooling at the corner of his eyes.

“I’m dreaming,” Lance whispers, trembling, “I’m dreaming right? You’re not really here, are you?”

“Lance,” Keith chokes, and that’s all Lance needs before he’s out of bed and in Keith’s shaking arms, holding on for dear life and crying into his shoulder.

“Oh, thank god,” Lance sobs, his hands gripping the back of Keith’s shirt, hard, “You’re okay, _you’re okay.”_

“I’m okay,” Keith assures him, hugging back just as tight, a weight in his chest finally bursting free. “ _We’re_ okay.”

 

-

 

Keith wakes up the next day wrapped in Lance’s arms, back to chest.

He’s not sure how long they both slept, but he’s not too worried; if the others had needed them they would have woken them up, so he guesses they must be staying under the radar for now.

He turns in Lance’s arms quietly to look at him, wanting to just to breathe him in. He feels his heart swell, drawing in a deep breath, bringing a hand up to cup Lance’s cheek softly. He’s beautiful. Keith almost can’t stand it, all of those memories come flooding back and it makes him choke up.

Lance stirs awake from the sound, his blue eyes adjusting to the light seeping in through the blinds. Keith hears Lance suck in a quick breath, and Keith doesn’t want to see the scared look appearing on Lance’s face ever again.

“Keith,” Lance says, like he still can’t quite believe it.

“Morning,” he whispers, his thumb stroking Lance’s cheekbone, “How… how are you feeling?”

“ _Me_?” Lance asks incredulously, letting out a bark of laughter. “God, Kogane, worry about _yourself_ for once,” his expression changes in a matter of seconds, his lip trembling, “You… you almost _died_ Keith – you nearly died protecting me, you… you complete _idiot_ ,” he whispers, a tear falling silently on the pillow.

“Yeah, well,” Keith tries to go for casual, “I wasn’t about to let the guy I love get shot, so, you can’t blame me _too_ much.”

And then, suddenly, Lance’s lips are on his; it’s groggy in the early morning, they both probably smell bad, their bodies are still weak and Keith doesn’t even know what day it is. But none of that matters, because all he can feel and breathe and see is Lance. He cards a hand through Lance’s hair, needing to hold him, warm and real and alive in his arms.

Lance kisses him like he’s starved. Keith wants to give Lance everything that he is.

They separate, breaths mingling between them, and Keith feels something inside of him finally become complete.

“I love you,” Lance says, smiling bright.

Keith swallows around the lump in his throat. “I love you,” he whispers back, soft and intimate.

They meet each other in the middle.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> confessing love during battle when one of them thinks they're gonna die is my one true trope! (OTT) ;)


End file.
